


The Microwave Favour

by helios_ (neocitz)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Humour, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 05:50:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15723264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neocitz/pseuds/helios_
Summary: ‘Before you say anything,’ Donghyuck says, throwing himself down onto the couch in Mark’s apartment, ‘I want you to remember that I covered for you when you blew up Taeyong’s microwave.’Ordinarily, Mark would be yelling at Donghyuck by now. Donghyuck’s keys to the flat is meant to be for emergencies, and the last twenty times he’s let himself in it’s been because he’s run out of bread or milk or his air-con’s broken. But Donghyuck’s invoked the Microwave Favour, which might actually warrant an emergency.‘What’ve you done now?’(Wherein Mark has to pretend to be Donghyuck's boyfriend for 0.1 seconds because Donghyuck goes into system reboot whenever Renjun so much as looks at him)





	The Microwave Favour

**Author's Note:**

> mostly unbeta'd but thank you to cla for helping

‘Before you say anything,’ Donghyuck says, throwing himself down onto the couch in Mark’s apartment, ‘I want you to remember that I covered for you when you blew up Taeyong’s microwave.’

Ordinarily, Mark would be yelling at Donghyuck by now. Donghyuck’s keys to the flat is meant to be for emergencies, and the last twenty times he’s let himself in it’s been because he’s run out of bread or milk or his air-con’s broken. But Donghyuck’s invoked the Microwave Favour, which might actually warrant an emergency.

‘What’ve you done now?’

Donghyuck spares a single look at Yukhei. Mark snorts down a laughter, because Yukhei’s three days deep into a paper for his Information Systems class and hasn’t moved since he realised he’d read the wrong case study. There’s little to no chance he even knows Donghyuck’s in the apartment.

‘Okay.’ Donghyuck tugs his hood down lower over his face before he looks up at Mark. It’s shy, and cute, and does not work on Mark at all. ‘So, you know how I have that group project?’

‘The one where you can’t concentrate on anything because, _quote_ , Renjun’s so pretty you want to drown yourself in tears?’

‘That’s the one.’ Donghyuck groans, trying to bury himself in the pillows of the couch as he looks up at Mark. He looks, Mark thinks, _incredibly pitiful_. ‘I was really prepared to try and finish the assignment today? But then he turned up and he’s like _blond,_ Mark. And I just… couldn’t talk, you know? Like all my words just got completely stuck in my throat, and I couldn’t talk to him.’

Mark sighs. ‘ _Donghyuck._ ’

‘I know.’ Donghyuck’s voice is further muffled as he tries to hide in the combination of throw pillows and oversized hoodie. It is, upon closer inspection, one of Mark’s. The little shit. ‘But he’s so nice, and so pretty and I know you told me to be more confident, but I couldn’t do it.’

‘What did you do?’

‘He told me there was a party happening on Saturday night, and said that I should come along?’

‘But that’s _good_?’ Mark sits up to pull the pillows away from Donghyuck, leaning in closer to look at his best friend. ‘You said yes, right?’ Donghyuck nods, avoiding Mark’s eyes. ‘Then why do you need to cash in the Microwave Favour?’

Donghyuck looks up at Mark, his lips pursed into a little pout and shoulders drawn into to make him look even smaller. ‘He said I should bring you with me, because he wants to meet my boyfriend?’   

 

 

Mark curses the time he forgot to take the foil off his food before microwaving it. He thought that nothing would ever be great enough for Donghyuck to call in the Microwave Favour, but apparently Huang Renjun was.

‘I don’t see why you can’t just tell him that we’re not dating?’ Mark says, adjusting his jumper as he and Donghyuck make their way over to Renjun’s apartment. ‘It’s literally that simple.’

‘I can’t,’ Donghyuck whines, fiddling with the bracelets on his wrists. ‘It’s like, he smiles and my brain just shuts down and I can’t say anything properly? He asked me if I wanted Nandos for dinner the other day and I said yes.’

Mark raises an eyebrow, ‘But you’re a vegetarian?’

_‘You think I don’t know that_?’

‘Still, isn’t it better for your crush to think you’re single, and available?’

Donghyuck waves a hand in the air. ‘There’s no point, he’s like? Perfect? I’m happy to just love him from afar and then forget him when this semester is over. I’m not aiming for a relationship with him or anything.’  

Mark slows to a stop, exhaling once as he looks at Donghyuck. The younger boy freezes, turning to where Mark is staring him down. He must already sense what Mark’s trying to say, because he shrinks away a little bit.

‘Dude,’ Mark says, ‘we’ve been over this. You’re like? _Dope_ as hell. You’re smart, you’re funny, and you’re cute as fuck. You’re confident, and you deserve to be in a relationship with a cute boy who likes you.’

‘I know,’ Donghyuck groans as they start walking again, ‘but I just can’t _deal_ with him.’

To be honest, Donghyuck is one of the most self-assured people Mark knows. When they were in secondary school, Donghyuck had stood in front of the school countless times and just led them with his good humour and charismatic smile. It only got better as the two of them transitioned into university, no longer having to conform to the insular community that was high school.

He’s only heard snippets about Renjun, about how his smile is bright and broad, about how his eyes light up when he starts talking about art, how he’s so at ease with the world. Mark can’t wrap his head around the idea that this Renjun boy makes his best friend nervous.

He can’t wait to meet him.

Donghyuck might want Mark to pretend to be his boyfriend for the night, but Mark’s determined to get his best friend a date instead.

 

 

It’s not actually Renjun’s party, Mark realises when they arrive. It’s Sicheng’s, which means that Mark actually knows more people than he thought he would. He can even see Yukhei, in a corner with a beer in his hand, enjoying his first night of freedom after the confines of case studies and coding portfolios.

‘For the record, I don’t agree with this plan,’ Mark mutters out of the corner of his mouth for the final time. It earns him an elbow in the stomach, but Mark ignores it as he follows Donghyuck towards a group of boys that light up when they spot each other. 

‘Hyuck!’ A taller, broader boy grins at Donghyuck and envelops him in a hug. It must be one of the three groupmates, though Mark can’t tell if it’s Jeno or Jaemin. It’s definitely not Renjun, because Donghyuck welcomes the hug with a bright laugh and clings to him for a moment too long. ‘Dude, why are you so late?’

‘Traffic,’ Donghyuck shrugs, ‘and _this one_ kept trying to fix his hair.’

‘Only because you said it looked like a rat had slept in it,’ Mark protests, reaching up to adjust his hair again. ‘And I wasn’t the one who kept forgetting things and had to run back to the apartment.’

‘It’s your job to make sure I have everything,’ Donghyuck splutters and Mark only just resists rolling his eyes.

‘Anyway,’ he turns to Donghyuck’s friends, ‘I’m Mark.’

He shakes hands with the three boys. The one who’s still hugging Donghyuck is Jeno. Jaemin is the one with pink hair and the smile with the slightly strained edges. Renjun is the smallest of the three, though perhaps the most welcoming as he pumped Mark’s hand and offered him a drink.

‘I almost didn’t think you were coming!’ Renjun says, leading Mark and Donghyuck to the kitchen.

‘I mean,’ Donghyuck’s voice is actually _garbled_ , words choked in his throat as his cheeks pink under Renjun’s kind smile, ‘I wouldn’t? Miss this?’ He’s fiddling with his sleeves, trying to speak without looking like an idiot and failing. It’s a sight that Mark’s never seen before.

Mark’s tempted to leave Donghyuck to his own floundering, because it’s amusing enough that he wants to laugh. But he’s a better friend than that, when he wants to be, and squeezes Donghyuck’s elbow to shut him up.

‘What he means is we’re really happy to be coming today,’ Mark says, smooth and friendly as he can make it. ‘Thanks for inviting us.’

 

 

Mark spends most of the party playing the part of the dutiful boyfriend, arm wrapped around Donghyuck’s waist even as he itches to put some space between them. He laughs in the right places, and charms Donghyuck’s friends with thrilling tales of their childhood.

They’re sitting on a couch, Donghyuck on the arm of it, as they sip from too-warm beers and trade stories. Mark would dare say that he’s made friends quicker with these three boys than he has with anyone in years. He can see why Donghyuck likes the project group so much.

‘I mean, there was that time he nearly got us banned from Target…’

‘You mean _you_ got us kicked out of Target.’ Donghyuck shoves Mark’s shoulder hard enough to actually hurt. ‘I’m never going there with you again.’ He turns to look at Jeno, Jaemin and Renjun. ‘He decided that we needed to buy every fucking gumball in the dispenser. It cost us eighty dollars!’

‘And we didn’t run out of gum for the entirety of year twelve!’ It hadn’t been one of Mark’s wiser choices, but it was still fun to see Donghyuck get riled up about it.

‘That’s not a good thing, Mark.’ Donghyuck’s eyes are wide and filled with a playful frustration.

‘Could have been worse, though,’ Renjun says and Donghyuck laughs with a bark.

‘How?’ It’s not unkind, but it’s disbelieving.  ‘Nothing ever outlives this guy’s stupid plans.’

‘Xuxi thought the best way to seduce his boyfriend was to have a shower, then just drop towel and pose in the living room,’ Renjun deadpans. He demonstrates by standing up, flexing his muscles in a way that can only be described as showboating. ‘It took a lot of convincing to talk him out of it.’

It startles a laugh out of Mark, and he can’t help the slap that lands on Donghyuck’s side. Unfortunately, he slaps too hard and Donghyuck goes from balancing on the edge of the couch to dropping onto the side table.

The crash is loud enough that everyone in the room pauses to look at them.

‘Oh my god, dude I’m _so sorry_.’ Mark leans over to pull Donghyuck up, but his friend winces and Mark is _fucked_ if he broke his best friend. Not only would Donghyuck kill him, but also Donghyuck’s mother, and Taeyong.

It’s worse than the Microwave Situation.

‘Are you okay?’ Renjun asks, rising to help brush Donghyuck down.

‘I’m fine, just a bit achey,’ Donghyuck says, flipping his hair out of his face.

‘Do you need ice or something?’ Mark asks, because it might not have been a high fall but it was a hard one. If he were less worried, he’d argue that Donghyuck shouldn’t have been sitting so precariously, but Mark’s a worrier and Donghyuck’s his best friend.

There’s a moment, when Donghyuck is quiet before he gives a little nod. That’s all Mark needs before he’s heading into the kitchen with wringing hands. Sicheng’s bound to have some peas or something that would work,

‘Mark!’ He turns to Renjun who’s jogging after him, beer abandoned as he looks up with worried eyes. ‘We’ve got proper icepacks in the bathroom, let me show you.’

 

 

The bathroom that he’s led to is surprisingly clean, considering they’re a few hours into a party. Renjun rummages around in a cupboard under the sink, while Mark leans against the doorway Then he remembers what made him laugh in the first place.

‘You know I’m not dating him,’ Mark says.

Renjun stops, and meets Mark’s gaze through the mirror. There’s a beat, and then a small, sharp little smile works its way across his face. This boy, Mark thinks, is _perfect_ for Donghyuck.

‘Of course I know. Xuxi spends eighty percent of his time describing exactly how whipped he is for you.’ Renjun pulls out the icepack, cracking it with a few deft movements to activate it. ‘No offence but he never shuts up about you.’

Mark is honestly touched.

‘Then why this whole thing?’

‘Donghyuck’s,’ Renjun pauses, looking washed out in the too-bright light of the bathroom, ‘shy around me. I see you guys around campus and he’s just? _Alive_? I don’t know why he’s so uncomfortable around me, but I thought that maybe you being around might help?’

‘Then why did you ask him to invite his _boyfriend_?’ Mark asks and for the first time, Renjun’s smile drops and there’s something of an embarrassed look on his face.

‘I panicked?’

‘Oh my god,’ Mark groans, ‘you guys are as bad as each other. Look, just, sit down with him and give him a little bit of time? He _really_ likes you, and you seem like a good guy. Ask him about his singing, or debate with him whether or not ghosts are real, he’ll love it.’  

Renjun looks up at Mark again, and then with a smile, leaves the bathroom. 

 

 

Mark exits the bathroom, to find Renjun and Donghyuck alone on the couch. Renjun’s carefully pressing the icepack to Donghyuck’s shoulder, and although Donghyuck’s bright red, he doesn’t seem to be choking up as he talks. It’s, dare Mark think it, cute.

‘Where’s your date?’ a low voice rumbles in his ear, and Mark grins when Yukhei tucks himself around Mark from behind.

‘Why didn’t you tell me? That Renjun would know.’

‘Because it was funny watching you two plan this whole thing out,’ Yukhei shrugs and Mark shoves him once before grabbing his boyfriend’s beer. ‘And Renjun asked me not to tell you guys because he didn’t want Donghyuck to find out.’

‘I hate you,’ Mark says, but even as he says it, he leans up to kiss Yukhei. ‘But what’s this I heard about a plan to pose naked in our living room?’

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hope everyone enjoyed!


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